Computer systems have greatly facilitated productivity and efficiency in the modern work environment. Tools such as application windows, browsers, search engines, menus, icons, folders, configuration settings, help files, and other items are routinely dispersed on a user's desktop or laptop computer and associated display. Many users have dozens of such items from which to select (e.g., application icons, folder directories, images) in order to perform common computer tasks such as running an application or searching for information. Searching often involves “drilling down” from one level via a “mouse click” to a desired sub-level to find desired information. When attempting to locate information however, computer users often have to peruse or look at a plurality of disassociated display objects in order to select the object of interest which then often involves further drilldown operations into another sublevel after selecting a desired object. When navigating to a different sublevel (e.g., subdirectory), respective sublevels are also often populated with a plurality of other information items to be scanned and further selected by the user.
As a consequence of the power of computers and the relatively low cost of memory, computer workspaces and/or applications themselves are offering ever-increasing options for users to select from. In a workspace example, a common desktop may provide application icons for running an application, folder icons for saving information, and other objects such as various menus from which to operate the computer in addition to various files created by the users themselves. In an application setting, various menus, toolbars, selection inputs, menu selections, and file management tools are provided to facilitate operations with the selected application. When using search engines or search utilities for example, often times hundreds of disparate items are returned and presented to users as a result of a search for desired information. The returned results typically must then be gleaned over to find the one or two items of interest. Clearly, having to process more information items causes users to lose valuable time and reduce overall efficiency. In some cases, having more tools or item selection capabilities at one's disposal causes some users to decrease their productivity even though their computers have increased capabilities.
As a consequence of so many options for creating and manipulating information or data, desktop and/or application workspaces have become increasingly cluttered. Thus, when a user attempts to find a piece of information or go to a directory to run an application, the user may have to inspect or view dozens of display items to find the particular item of interest. As can be appreciated, the more features that are added to computer systems—including items created by the user such as files, the more tedious it becomes to manage and efficiently process such items. Consequently, there is a need to more efficiently manage computer data presentations to users in an automated manner.